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CME Group Inc., the world’s largest and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced the launch of trading and clearing services for a new physically delivered Gulf Coast sour crude oil futures contract. Trading will be available on the CME Globex® electronic trading platform and the New York trading floor. Clearing services will be available through CME ClearPort®, , a set of flexible clearing services open to over-the-counter (OTC) market participants to substantially mitigate counterparty risk and provide neutral settlement prices across asset classes. Trading and clearing are scheduled to begin on December 6 for trade date December 7. These contracts will be listed by NYMEX and subject to the rules and regulations of NYMEX and Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.
The new contract (commodity code MB) will have physical delivery based on Mars-type crude oil at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port LLC (LOOP) facilities in Clovelly, Louisiana. Alternate delivery of two foreign crude oil streams will be permitted at fixed differentials. The contract will be available for trading as an inter-commodity spread to WTI on CME Globex, using the MB:CL spread code.
Exchange trading and CME Clearing fees for the Gulf Coast sour crude oil futures contract will be waived until June 30, 2010. The first listed month will be the February 2010 contract, and the contract will be listed for 36 consecutive months. It will be 1,000 barrels in size, with a minimum price fluctuation of $0.01 per barrel.
This new physically delivered sour crude oil contract will provide a valuable hedging tool for managing the “sweet-sour” crude oil price risk, and it correlates closely with the sour crude oil grades in the U.S. Gulf Coast.
For more information please visit www.cmegroup.com/clearport.
